Phlegmophobia…

When I hear the word elixir, it brings to mind a bad cold, which in turn makes me think of phlegm. Phlegm is a word I associate with a longheld fear from my early childhood. I recall having my first really bad cold around the age of 8 when at primary school (grade 3). I was finding it hard to swallow and my throat was really sore so I went to the teacher and told her I didn’t feel very well, and she told me to go to the sick room which was located near the principal’s office. Back then there were no nurses at the school, the office lady had the added bonus job of looking after any ill kids in the adjoining sick bay. When examining me, she noticed that my breathing was constricted and I wheezed every time I breathed in. She gave me a cough mixture syrup saying “you have phlegm, you’ll need to try and cough it up”. Sitting upright on the bed, I dutifully started to cough, trying to bring up the phlegm. I could feel my throat was very blocked and it was extremely sore. I found myself choking (for a second) on a bit of phlegm, which left me gasping for air and gave me a dreadful fright. As a result, I was extremely reluctant to continue with this coughing up phlegm business; I thought it was going to lead to my death! She could see I was quite panicked, wide eyed & scared so told me to sit there quietly and relax and she would go & try to contact my mother to come and collect me. Of course my mum wasn’t at home, she was out playing social tennis and in those days there were no mobile phones! The office lady then called my father who worked full-time as a commercial artist in Melbourne, about a 40 min drive from my school. The office lady returned with the good news that my father had left his work and was on his way. I thought if I can just hold on until he arrives then I will be okay and survive this horrible phlegm experience. 40 minutes later ( a lifetime in my head) he walked through the door whereby the instant I saw his concerned face I burst into tears. He comforted me and took me home. I don’t remember any more, but obviously I coughed the phlegm up and lived to write this post! However, since that day, whenever I have a bad cold, I vividly recall my fear of choking on the phlegm and the emotional feeling when my father entered the sickroom to to take me home…
Tracey

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12 thoughts on “Phlegmophobia…”

It’s amazing how things trigger memories 😪 Do you know that you don’t have a comment box on your actual post. For anyone to comment they gave to come into your site. This will stop you receiving some comments from the followers who read and run 🙂